1. Field of the Invention
The present invention belongs to a field of electric connectors that are horizontally mounted on a printed circuit board, etc., and relates to a structure for supporting electric contacts on an insulating housing.
2. Related Art
A horizontal electric connector is known as one of the above-mentioned horizontal electric connectors. This horizontal electric connector comprises an insulating housing, a first electric contact, which has a contacting part that is fixed on the insulating housing and contacts a counterpart contact, and a leg that extends from the contacting part, comes out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof and descends, and a second electric contact, which has a contacting part that is fixed on the insulating housing at a position lower than that of the first electric contact and contacts a counterpart contact, and a leg that extends from the contacting part, comes out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof and extends forwards along the bottom of the insulating housing (for example, refer to Japanese Utility Model unexamined publication gazette Heisei 1-160679). This horizontal electric connector is mounted on a printed circuit board by placing the horizontal electric connector on the printed circuit board, with the bottom of the horizontal electric connector facing a face of the printed circuit board, and soldering the connecting part at the top end of each leg onto a conductive part of the printed circuit board. When, as explained above, the leg of the second electric contact coming out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof is guided forwards, the distance between the connecting part of the second electric contact and the connecting part of the first electric connector can be made greater in comparison with a case wherein the leg of the second electric connector, which is coming out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof, is made to descend directly. Accordingly, even if the electric connector is subjected to a force in the front-rear direction by insertion or removal of a counterpart electric connector, the forces to which the connecting parts are subjected by the force will be reduced, and moreover, troubles such as short circuits caused by a solder waste or the like caught between the connecting parts can be prevented.
In the case of the above-mentioned horizontal electric connector, the length of the second electric contact from the part fixed to the insulating housing to the connecting part is longer in comparison with a case wherein the second electric contact descends directly at the rear of the insulating housing. Because of this, the leg tends to be deformed due to external forces. If the leg is deformed, the bottom of the leg and the bottoms of legs of other second electric contacts will become irregular to each other, losing the coplanarity, or increasing the possibility of defective connection and short circuit. Herein, obtaining the coplanarity means that the faces of the electric contacts, which contact a printed circuit board or the like, constitute a single plane.
The present invention was made in view of these points, and one objective of the invention is to provide a horizontal electric connector that can stably obtain the coplanarity of the second electric contacts and reliably prevent defective connection and short circuit by supporting the leg of the second electric contact on the bottom of the insulating housing and preventing deformation of the leg in both the height direction and the width direction.
To accomplish the above-mentioned objective, the horizontal electric connector according to the present invention comprises an insulating housing having a front, a rear and a bottom, a first electric contact, which has a contacting part that is press-fitted into the insulating housing from the rear and contacts a counterpart conductive part, and a leg that extends from the contacting part, comes out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof and descends, a second electric contact, which has a contacting part that is press-fitted into the insulating housing from the rear at a position lower than that of the first electric contact and contacts a counterpart conductive part, and a leg that extends from the contacting part, comes out of the insulating housing at the rear thereof and extends forwards along the bottom of the insulating housing, and a leg supporting part, which is provided on the bottom of the insulating housing and into which the leg of the second electric contact is press-fitted from the rear.
When this horizontal electric connector is placed in such a way that its bottom faces a printed circuit board or the like, and the connecting parts at the top ends of the legs of the first electric contact and the second electric contact are soldered onto the printed circuit board or the like, the horizontal electric connector will be mounted onto the printed circuit board or the like. In this case, as the leg of the second electric contact extends forwards along the bottom, even if the horizontal electric connector is subjected to a force in the front-rear direction, the forces to which the connecting parts will be subjected will be reduced, and moreover, troubles, such as short circuit caused by a solder waste or the like caught between the connecting parts will be prevented. Furthermore, as the leg of the second electric contact is press-fitted into the leg supporting part on the bottom of the insulating housing from the rear, the leg will hardly undergo deformation in the height direction and the width direction. As a result, the coplanarity of the second electric contacts will be obtained reliably and defective connection and short circuit will be prevented.
Accordingly, the horizontal electric connector according to the present invention can reduce the force to which the connecting parts are subjected when the connector is subjected to a force in the front-rear direction because the leg of the second electric contact extends along the bottom of the connector. Moreover, the horizontal electric connector of the present invention can prevent occurrence of troubles such as a short circuit between connecting parts due to a solder waste, etc. As the leg of the second electric contact is supported on the bottom of the insulating housing, the leg hardly undergoes deformation in the height direction and the width direction, and the coplanarity of the second electric contacts can be obtained stably, and defective connection and short circuit can be prevented reliably.